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Girls soccer: Thompson Valley cruises to city title in win over Mountain View

Kaili Campbell comes off the bench, nets hat trick in 20 minutes

By Cris Tiller

Reporter-Herald Sports Writer

Posted:
04/18/2017 08:15:17 PM MDT

Thompson Valley's Izzy Bryson (12) and Bailey Bottoms celebrate Bryson's goal to end the first half against Mountain View on Tuesday at MVHS. The Eagles secured the city title after a 6-0 victory. (Jenny Sparks / Loveland Reporter-Herald)

Their path was riddled with potholes.

And Thompson Valley had trouble avoiding them. Full of optimism and shooting for lofty aspirations entering the season, the Eagles stumbled.

They began the campaign with a loss to ranked Windsor and dropped five of their first six games, including four in a row. Worse yet, all but the opening defeat for Thompson Valley were by a single goal.

But for the early struggles, the Eagles continue to grip the crosstown matchups with a stranglehold, beating Mountain View 6-0 on Tuesday at MVHS, claiming the city title by a combined score of 12-0, and just maybe helping smooth out their road for the remainder of the year.

In two games against Loveland and Mountain View, the Eagles (4-6, 2-2 Northern Conference) were essentially unchallenged as they plowed their way to a third consecutive year without losing to crosstown opposition.

Two goals in the first 18 minutes of the match set the tone for the afternoon as Thompson Valley dominated possession and dictated the pace as three different players struck netting before the day was over.

Junior Kahrena Thompson started the avalanche 12 minutes into the match and drew up the blueprint the Eagles would use throughout. A long throw in snuck behind a young Mountain View back line, allowing Thompson to utilize her speed and comfortably get off a clean, low strike to beat sophomore goalkeeper Beatriz Lopez.

Thompson Valley received production from its back four when junior Shae Schuetz battled for possession of a loose ball near the top of the Lions' box, winning the ball and firing a high shot, which snuck under the crossbar for a 2-0 advantage before 20 minutes had expired.

"We're getting other girls stepping up and it's great to see them spreading the wealth around," TVHS coach Scott Washenfelder said. "They took care of business."

Mountain View (1-9, 0-3 NC) remained under siege, but kept the Eagles off the board nearly until the halftime horn, however, Bryson pounced on a through ball from midfielder Kaylee Morris and buried her chance with nobody but the keeper standing in her way in the final minute.

"Well, it was my first goal of the season, so that one felt pretty good," she said. "It was a nice through pass from Kylee Morris and I just cut it inside and I was past their defense. I was just telling myself 'don't screw up.'"

Knowing that the Lions were off to a rocky start with a young squad, Washenfelder used the opportunity to experiment with his lineup and insert players who see less of the field throughout the season to gain valuable experience.

That meant the team's leading scorer (already with 11 goals entering the match) Kaili Campbell began the day on the bench and wouldn't see any action the entire first half.

She would only see roughly 20 minutes all told, and what a show it was.

Campbell notched a goal less than 3 minutes into the second half to push her side up 4-0, then added another. And another.

Not entirely thrilled to watch the match begin from the bench — but willing to help the team's strength moving forward — Campbell formed a plan.

"The whole sitting just made me think and I wanted to play, so I guess it fired me up a little more," she said. "I wanted to prove myself and get that hat trick I've been really wanting all season."

Mountain View was forced to bunker down inside its own end for nearly the entire match, stretched from both the sides and in the seams up the middle by wave after wave of Eagles.

Several chances narrowly missed their mark and Lopez had plenty of say on many others, gathering a handful of strong saves to keep the margin lower than it might've been.

"You know it happened, but you just try to forget and erase it from your mind and keeping moving on," Lopez said of surrendering six goals. "You try to think positive and get it to the other side and save as much as you can.

"You can't always look at the negative side. You learn from the negative, from the mistakes, and you have to move on from those."

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